While in Western cultures, forks are the most commonly used eating utensil for picking up pieces of food, chopsticks are mainly used in most East Asian countries such as China and Japan. An increasing number of people accustomed to forks or non-chopstick utensils become exposed to chopsticks when eating in East Asian restaurants. Many Westerners accustomed to eating with forks for their entire lives have initial difficulty handling chopsticks, and many are never completely comfortable using chopsticks. Chopsticks are relatively easy to use for those who have been using them throughout their lifetime and who are brought up using only chopsticks at every meal, but for those accustomed to forks, the experience of handling two separate elements in one hand can be very difficult. These problems affect those relatively new to chopsticks, and also affect children and the infirmed.
To overcome many of the difficulties in handling food by novice chopstick users, a number of modified chopsticks designs have been developed.
For example, U.S. Design Pat. No. 345,086, issued to Shapiro, incorporates two chopstick type tong elements into a single utensil having a U-shaped connecting portion at one end with a central disc-shaped fulcrum between the tong elements to assist in pivoting the tong elements together. Each of the tong elements has knurled ribs along the inside edge to assist in picking up food pieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,402,214, issued to Weiner, shows a U-shaped holder for a pair of conventional chopsticks, in which the holder comprises a paper or plastic flexible drinking straw.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,922, issued to Hosak-Robb, shows an eating implement with a tong-like body with two rod-like members connected by a resilient web. While the device is designed to replace conventional chopsticks, it operates like small tongs.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,640,561, issued to Law, describes a V-shaped utensil in which each of the straight chopstick-like members is joined together at one end, resulting in a tweezers-like configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,435, issued to Huey, and U.S. Design Pat. No. 374,379, issued to Jee et al., disclose eating utensils in which the two chopstick-like members are connected together a one end by an M-shaped connection, providing a spring-like connection between the two elements.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0051327, filed by Yoon, shows a chopstick-type eating utensil in which two chopstick-like members are attached at one end by a connecting support.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,510, issued to Lew, discloses a pair of conventional chopsticks which are coupled together by a spring, so that the assembly resembles a spring clothespin. Japan Patent Publication No. 2005137876, issued to Pigeon Corp., shows a similar device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,128, issued to Doug, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,052,061, issued to Calagui, show a pair of conventional chopsticks connected together with a spring loaded connector having hollow tubes for insertion of each of the chopsticks.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,530, issued to Young, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,639, issued to Nicoletta et al. disclose chopsticks assemblies in which the chopsticks are pivoted together in the middle resulting in a scissors-like arrangement.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,781, issued to Rollband, shows a modified chopstick assembly in which a support member is attached between the distal ends of the chopsticks to hold them together. U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,997, issued to Martikainen et al., discloses chopsticks which interlock to keep them held together at the distal end. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,239,262, issued to Rines et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,334, issued to Nakatsu, U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,328, issued to Barillos, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0082855, filed by Baxter, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0197390, filed by Choi et al, and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0096898, field by Kang, all disclose chopstick holders which attached to the distal end of a pair of conventional chopsticks to assist in holding the chopsticks together.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,435, issued to Printz, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,173, issued to Brincat, both show eating utensils in which the two chopstick members are connected at one end with a fork-like element, allowing the utensil to be used from either end as either chopsticks or a conventional fork.
Many of these designs are clumsy to handle, and subject to failure and expensive to manufacture due to their complicated designs. None provide a simple aesthetically pleasing chopstick-like eating utensil which is as easy to handle as pair of tongs. In addition, none provide substantial ergonomic benefits or are designed to fit the user's hand in a superior manner.
Conventional chopsticks also have a further disadvantage in that they can be contaminated by contact with the surface of the table when not in use. Some restaurants and individuals provide chopstick rests on which the chopsticks can be placed when not in use. However, providing these chopsticks rests costs money, time and effort, they can become dirty, and it is often troublesome for the diners who must set down the chopsticks on the rests every time. The modified chopstick designs discussed above generally do not address this problem, since they utilize straight chopstick-like members which cannot be placed on the table surface without being contaminated.
Due to the difficulty in handling chopsticks, many dinners resort to using forks when eating East Asian food. Forks often seem out of place in consuming East Asian food, but are often the only available alternative for those that may have difficulty with conventional chopsticks. Nevertheless, forks are not always the best choice for eating all kinds of food because they require either stabbing food morsels in order to lift them to the user's mouth or shoveling them onto the tines. For eating some types of food, such as noodles, forks are often ill-suited because noodles cannot be easily stabbed and slither off forks when an attempt is made to scoop them up. Forks also present the possibility of stabbing oneself in the cheek or tongue with the fork's prongs when one puts the food items in one's mouth. Thus, the western fork and the eastern chopsticks are limited in functioning properly in regard to both western and eastern dishes.